FROM

Recognizing and accepting animal pleasure is an act of basic empathy. It
is recognizing that—when it comes to the experience of a quality of
life—they are us and we are them. Animal behavior is one of the clearest windows onto animals’ inner lives.
The way animals behave helps to demonstrate their sentience, and I like to
say that sentience is the bedrock of ethics.
— Author, ethologist and biologist Dr. Jonathan Balcombe.

Author, ethologist and biologist Dr. Jonathan Balcombe is breaking new
ground in our understanding of and appreciation for animals. For many,
Second Nature, his last book, was their first introduction to his
fascinating and brave new world of animal behaviorism. His new book, The
Exultant Ark: A Pictorial Tour of Animal Pleasure, promises to broaden even
more the base of his audience with compelling visual references for all of
the major insights in the book.

Not only does Balcombe make us rethink our attitudes and relationships
with non-human animals; he also compels us to turn that knowledge into
action. Free from Harm interviewed Jonathan to get a deeper understanding of
his ideas and in particular how they apply to animals used in agriculture.

FFH: Some scientists just do their research, write their reports and
visit conferences. But you seem to have a more active role in being an
animal advocate. To what extent do you apply your study of animals into
action for animals?

JB: I consider my job as an animal advocate at least as important as my
role as a scientist. I apply my study and knowledge of animals into action
through my writings—books, blogs, scholarly papers, book chapters, etc.—and
through public speaking.

FFH: How does science intersect with ethics in your analysis of animal
behavior?

JB: Animal behavior is one of the clearest windows onto animals’ inner
lives. The way animals behave helps to demonstrate their sentience, and I
like to say that sentience is the bedrock of ethics.

FFH: How do you explain why the study of animal behavior, ethology, has
remained so underdeveloped up until the present time?

JB: Observing animal behavior is so absorbing that I’m a bit stumped as
to why there was so relatively little written about it before Darwin’s time.
But let’s give science its due; after a period of myopic denial when it was
doubted even whether animals were conscious, the latter twentieth century
has seen the emergence of ethology as a lively and very active field. I view
ethology’s contributions to our understanding of animals as one of the
pillars supporting the animal rights movement.

FFH: What major directions do you see this discipline headed in?

JB: I am encouraged by the recent rise in relatively benign studies on
animal emotions and cognition. I think these trends will continue. We are
beginning to see more studies that combine behavior with noninvasive brain
imaging and measures of biochemical changes (e.g., hormone responses to
emotional events) to show parallels between human- and non-human animals.
This sort of evidence is very persuasive, and I believe it has a key role in
compelling the sort of paradigm shift people in this social movement are
hoping for.

FFH: What can a better understanding of pleasure in animals do to help us
understand ourselves better?

JB: Recognizing and accepting animal pleasure is an act of basic empathy.
It is recognizing that—when it comes to the experience of a quality of
life—they are us and we are them.

FFH: How did you go about selecting the images in The Exultant Ark?

JB: Some images were easy to select because they were both beautiful and
they “shouted” animal pleasure. Others were more subtle and required
communication with the photographer to help clarify what was going on when
the photo was taken. I also had a framework into which I wanted to organize
the photos (e.g., categories of play, touch, love, sex, food, and
companionship), and some otherwise legitimate images just didn’t fit that
framework.

FFH: With regard to farmed animals, what unique ethical questions do we
face with the knowledge we have of their behavior and intelligence?

JB: There’s really just one overarching ethical question here: How can we
possibly justify mutilating these animals, crowding them into places that
thwart even their most basic needs, and then shipping them in terribly
stressful conditions to the horror of their slaughter—when we don’t even
need to eat them to begin with? The answer is clear: We can’t.

FFH: What opposing views of animal behavior serve to justify the
treatment of farmed animals today? What are their sources?

JB: I’ve yet to see a single opposing view that justifies our treatment
of farmed animals.

FFH: How important do you think veganism is as an ethical and practical
solution to the fate of animals used in agriculture today?

JB: Veganism is as vital as it is easy. I regard it as the Holy Grail of
personal activism for animals, the environment, and human health. It is also
a useful tool for addressing this nation’s economic woes.

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